But, having said that, make sure you give plants a chance. When I got my first spindly bunch of Pennywort I planted it and it took weeks before it grew at all, then it was very slow; but after I think it was 3-4 months, it grew like a weed and has continued to do so. Except, periodically, it seems to stop. Most plants do this; I suspect it is simply a period of vegetative rest. Don't rush things.

As usual, all good information. Thanks for all your help. No worries on the "Don't rush things" advice. I can't do anything until I find a new home for my 2 Leporinus. Wouldn't you know, those guys are growing like weeds and becoming quite the gardeners. This morning I was marveling at how tall my Cabomba are getting and how full they look. Tonight I came home to several of the tallest plants broken down and pieces floating. I can't say for sure it was them but... given the profile, I suspect them.

It is unfortunate that they will have to find a new home because they are really neat little (soon to be big) fish.

Not too smart. I am in the process of trying to find more suitable home for them. They might be rushing me along a little by trying to kill all my plants. ha ha

No Seriously, I really like these little guys and wish I had a tank I could keep them in myself. Sadly, I can't afford a 500 gallon tank. The pet store still insists that this is some dwarf variety even though nobody else I talk to has ever heard of such a thing. I can't find any info on any dwarf variety either. Poor little fish being sold to people who cannot properly house them. My guess, it won't end well for most of them.

Not too smart. I am in the process of trying to find more suitable home for them. They might be rushing me along a little by trying to kill all my plants. ha ha

No Seriously, I really like these little guys and wish I had a tank I could keep them in myself. Sadly, I can't afford a 500 gallon tank. The pet store still insists that this is some dwarf variety even though nobody else I talk to has ever heard of such a thing. I can't find any info on any dwarf variety either. Poor little fish being sold to people who cannot properly house them. My guess, it won't end well for most of them.

They call any fish a dwarf because if you put it in a 10 gallon tank for it's whole life, it won't grow past 6-7 inches long.

They don't realise the power the tank size has over growth rates.

Also, on the note about light...

Believe it or not, every frequency of light has some affect in plants.

I read a study, where they used LED lights to limit the bandwidths of light plants recieved.
Part of the results said that even green light is useful to plants, but they only need a tiny amount. The trace of it does provide more photosynthesis, but providing more green light to an otherwise balanced light source has little effect.
They also noted that while the dominant photosynthetic frequencies are red and blue (660nm and 440nm- nanometers are a measure of light wavelength) the addition of blue beyond a certain point also had little effect (in terrestrial plants) and that the red frequency (660nm) was the only color that could be added to an otherwise balanced light source to increase growth.

They noted that the plants with red or yellow leaves didn't need more red or yellow light (respectively), but they needed more of the other spectrums. They evolved to be red, green, or whatever, because that light was lacking in their own enviroment.
They speculated that plants like Alternanthera evolved in areas of dense vegetation- most of the red light was absorbed by the plants surrounding them. They evolved to better absorb green light, since it was reflecting off of the other plants.

FYI: This doesn't change a single thing about Byron's suggestions, just wanted to pass on some interesting info that I collected when I was doing research into LED's.

Alternanthera is a good filler plant, but Echinodorus species work well as background plants too.
Along with Hygrophila Sp. (most of them)

If you want a red accent and the Alternanthera doesn't work out, get some red Ludwigea, it's dark green on top of the leaves and a deep maroon on the bottom.

Thanks for posting this, it caused me to dig a bit with the following results.

First though, the fish Inga has is definitely the banded Leporinus that attains 18+ inches and devours plants; Inga confirmed that from the photo I attached to a prior post in this or another thread. And at the time I said I was not aware of a "dwarf" Leporinus, which I wasn't until now.

The species in the video may be Leporinus guttatus. This new species was described by Britski & Birindelli in March 2009. According to their paper which I've just read, the maximum length of the specimens they caught was 124.7 mm (about 5 inches). They note this would seem to be the smallest known species of Leporinus, much smaller than the 90-some species in this genus now, assuming they collected full size fish. This species they also note is unique in not having the common vertical barring of Leporinus species but instead the large blotches. I'm attaching one of the photos from their description study; the pattern seems similar to that on the fish in the video. The fish was discovered in the Rio Xingu basin, a souther tributary of the Amazon; the video says "under the Amazon" but that may or may not refer to the Amazon River proper.

The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.[unknown source]

Something we all need to remember: The fish you've acquired was quite happy not being owned by you, minding its own business. If you’re going to take it under your wing then you’re responsible for it. Every aspect of its life is under your control, from water quality and temperature to swimming space. [Nathan Hill in PFK]